NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: VineetKapila, CEO at Spencer's Retail, has put in his papers and will be succeeded by MohitKampani, the current head of merchandising and operations, two company officials said.

The retail arm of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group has hired two global retail hands - Venkat Narayanan, former director of merchandising at Office Depot in the US, and Kingshuk Basu, a former executive at Kroger & Daymon Worldwide - ahead of a possible stake sale to a strategic foreign partner or a public listing.

VC Agrawal, the group's HR director, said the latest recruitments are undertaken to streamline operations and bring the international best practices into the firm. He, however, declined to comment on or confirm the change of the CEO.

Some employees see the new recruitments as a strategy to woo potential foreign partners. In September, India allowed global supermarket operators to own up to 51% stake in local multi-brand retailing.

"The buzz in the office is that the latest hires are sort of a window-dressing of the company to attract investors or foreign retail partner," a senior employee said, requesting not to be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Another senior executive requesting anonymity said the retailer had undertaken a global search to bolster its management team, fast-track expansion and improve profitability before roping in a strategic partner.

Kapila said the induction of Narayanan and Basu to head merchandising and operations, respectively, is part of a company strategy to be "future ready" to scale up and grow. He, however, declined to comment on his own departure. Kapila joined Spencer's Retail, which operates 153 hypermarts and neighbourhood stores across the country, in 2008 from Coca-Cola India, where he was senior vice-president for India and South West Asia.

Under Kapila, Spencer's initiated major restructuring of its business that included the closure and relocation of almost 100 unviable stores in the last four years.

Meanwhile, K Dasaratharaman, who was heading the specialty retail formats of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group that includes music retail chain Music Word and US-based cafe and bakery chain Au Bon Pain, has quit the company. Dasaratharaman will be replaced by Sanjay Gupta.

Vishal Mehrotra has been promoted as the general manager for marketing at Spencer's Retail.

Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, had earlier this month told reporters that the group is planning to demerge its retail unit either to list it or find a strategic investor.

In the first six months of this fiscal, Spencer's has clocked a turnover of Rs 714 crore against Rs 536 crore in the year-ago period. The company has set a target to breakeven by December 2013.